There is a very enchanting performance from Josette Bushell-Mingo as Rafiki, who takes on the wise old baboon of the play and acts as the plays narrator. Also, a convincing part by Cornell John as Mufasa and the young Simba is played impressively by a naturally cheeky looking Ross Coates who I will expect to see in the very near future playing some very important parts across film, television and further stage productions.
The cartoon characters are transformed with wildly imaginative masks and puppets. Just to get a better view of the whole stage in the opening scenes (pride rock), in went up stairs and stood right at the back. The astonishing thing was that, even though the stage was packed with a huge elephant, towering giraffes and other animals I could still identify the main characters by there striking masks, meaning the masks still had the most potential in capturing the audience. The costumes of most animals were made structurally (i.e. wood) covered with exotically coloured fabrics. The opening scenes at Pride Rock present the audience with most characters that will appear in the play. We see giraffes on stilts, leaping antelopes, a giant elephant and its baby, and many swooping birds.
The music and dance in The Lion King are good, but maybe it’s only downfall. Most of the songs are by Elton John and Tim Rice which add that original feeling from the animation (such as ‘Circle of life’), but in some places it got very patchy. However, at the beginning of Act 2 an exciting African rhythm by Lebo M, called “One by One”, has a tribal chanting feel and although in a different language, it is easily understood by the audience as cheerful, and celebrative. It’s sung by the wise baboon Rafiki and really gets the audience whipped up on our return from the interval. With the choreography mixed in, it truly gets your pulse going for the first ten minutes or so.
Like the masks, puppetry, and almost everything else about the play, the scenic effects are almost beyond description. Pride Rock has a pop up effect from the stage and literally acts as if it were the centre of the story line. The play stages over 20 location changes and does this very uniquely. As I explained before about the joyful beginning of Act 2 well, just before that song finishes the stage is cast into dark blue lighting with the odd lightning flash resembling Scar taking over Pride Rock gradually. Beautiful birds flying in the sky disappear and skeletons appear on stage. The more animals that leave the stage the more skeletons appear, I saw this as a simple but effective method resembling their deaths. Other spectacular scenic effects are the must see orange paper sun and the grass that seems to grow from the stage. When leaving the theatre it was the scenic effects and lighting that had the most effect on me.
The anthropomorphism (adding human characteristics to animals) in the Lion King is also seen in the play animal farm. This was an object that we had trouble overcoming, but after seeing the Lion King and Taymor’s methods, I realised that I never questioned animals talking in the Lion King, which was the first thing I questioned when first exploring the script of Animal Farm. The masks, puppets, and other theatrical devices made you believe this and we became ‘blind’ to the fact that they were actually human actors and actresses.
By Sean Kember
RESEARCH: The Lion King Program (supplied at theatre)
Picture sketched by Sean Kember, images taken from the internet.
